A Quality Sales Email

Posted At : November 19, 2007 5:10 PM
Related Categories: Search Marketing News

It never ceases to amaze me at how little knowledge so called SEO companies are proud of spouting as part of their sales pitch. We received the following email that I think was supposed to encourage us to pick up the phone but instead had us in stitches.

Email from company X

My name is XXXX from XXXX. I’ve just performed a complimentary link check for you to highlight how popular your website is around the web. Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes to read this.

Here we go......

Here is the result:
[site name] is currently linked to by 9 websites. I have used Google to find these links because for most people this is the most important search engine.

Ever hear of Yahoo! Site Explorer"? For many years now it's been common knowledge that the 'link' operator used by Google to display links back to a site is a fictional representation. If you want to know what links Google sees pointing to your website then webmaster tools will give you an indication once you've created an account and verified the site you're registering as your own. Otherwise Yahoo! Site Explorer gives an indication.

A higher number of links pointing to your website means you can achieve far higher rankings on Google, Yahoo, MSN - meaning that you attract more customers, make more profit, and benefit from an increasing return on investment.

Quantity yes but no mention of quality here? Quality links will not only heighten the 'trust' associated with your own website but will also help you withstand the fluctuations inflicted by the algorithm changes.

To achieve the above, the full service we are offering you includes on-going link campaigns plus the peace of mind that your website is always correctly "tuned" to the search engines' current algorithms (extremely important these days).

Ha Ha Ha!

To make sure you get the results you need, your actual search engine results are backed by our 2 tier Top 10 Promise:
1. If we don’t achieve first page rankings for your selected search terms on Google, Yahoo, MSN we’ll refund your money! 2. If we don’t then keep you on first page rankings for your selected search terms on Google, Yahoo, MSN we’ll refund your money!

At every stage of your campaign you will be kept fully up to date, with regular reports detailing exactly how your search terms are performing across the search engines.

We have achieved excellent results for many of our clients using extremely competitive search terms. To find out what kind of results our clients have experienced, we are happy to provide you with their contact details so you can contact them directly.

You will also benefit from your own personal account manager whom you may contact at any time should you need any assistance or have any questions.

Very impressive indeed....

However doing a search on Google and I quote "I have used Google to find these links because for most people this is the most important search engine" this company do not appear for any of the top 20 key phrases used by search engine optimisation companies. And regardless of their promotional techniques a quick look at the source of the home page shows the first meta tag as:

"meta content="noindex,nofollow" name="robots" /"

For those that don't know, this tells the search engines robots that visit your site and index the content, to steer clear. Don't come here, do not look and certainly don’t include us in your index! It beggars belief really but certainly provides a good laugh!